This is the only one of these three shows I’ve seen. It was not good and the only thing going on is the Cl4n/Guerreros feud. With no great interest in that and no follow up from the hair match, this didn’t feel like the week after the Aniversarios how. It felt like a show that could’ve happened at any time.

I saw only bits and pieces to this but it seemed to get favorable reviews. Nothing much of importance happened unless you – like the people on this show – are going with the idea that the Heroes Inmortales card was not released by AAA a week ago. They did a big reveal of half of the Antonio Pena Cup field, which is already on that lineup, and Keyra & Starfire made challenges we already knew about. I guess you have to explain things to the TV audience, though they probably won’t be seeing this show until long after that card takes place anyway.

That Heroes Inmortales card is noticeably missing Fenix. AAA still had Laredo Kid get the win to build to the title shot set up in Merida, and the opening video brought up Fantasma also challenging for that title a while back.

It appeared to be the original Mascarita Sagrada in the opener, a borderline Hall of Famer for his influence. It appears to be his first match in AAA since 1998, and maybe his first match in AAA under that name since 1995 (but I may have the minis named wrong.) Sagrada left AAA after a falling out with Antonio Pena; AAA’s certainly working hard at repairing old breakups this year.

It’s impossible to miss how much smaller the crowd was than usual, by far the weakest crowd in recent times for The Crash in it’s home building. With all due respect to Mecha Wolf, not having the two bigger names from the Rebelion Amarilla (Garza, Bestia) probably hurt. Coming back in two weeks might be too quick, but that seems like the plan going forward. They’ve got the 10/06 show and seem like they’ll be back quick after that.

The Crash’s talk about streaming “every event going forward” lasted 1 event. They did eventually say as much on Facebook, after they had been asked about 15 times. I don’t think we appreciate how good we’ve had it with AAA saying they were going to stream every taping on Twitch this year and actually doing it. Plenty of people say they’re going to do things in lucha libre and few seem concerned with actually living up to their promises.

Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe, Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero, and Euforia were announced as appearing on 10/06.

This is an overloaded card when Angel de Oro, Niebla Roja, Ephesto and Mephisto are working the second match.

Main event feels too soon for Cl4n to lose the titles back if they’re going to a hair match. But logic is not a big part of this feud.

Michael Elgin returns for the third year, the only outsider in a week before the Gran Prix. CMLL loves Elgin. A singles match with someone should be expected if he’s around for a while. I also believe Elgin wouldn’t be back in CMLL if he could get booked in high profile places in the US. (Kind of surprised we’re not seeing Dark Magic early too, because he probably could use the work.)

We know Cuatrero, Sanson, and Elgin are in the Gran Prix, and it’s a good chance other people in that match will be as well.

Hijo de LA Park getting booked even with LA Park out is a good sign for that relationship.

Terrible got the pin in the main event after Diamante Azul accidentally took out Fenix with his dive and Rush dropkicked Atlantis to turn the pin over.

The lightning match featured a new graphic that looked like it came from 1978. The time, a (second) CMLL logo and “match relampago” were all displayed on the screen, in large type that obscured the action.

Rey Bucanero superplex to death

Casas tied Mistico’s mask to the ropes. Mistico pulled off his mask while the referee was busy with Zacarias, and kneed Casas questionably low. The referee turned around, saw Casas selling a foul and Mistico unmasked, and called it a win for Mistico. Crowd booed.

The Chris hit the Guerreros with the cane for the first fall DQ. UG used the ropes to win, much more effectively than Ciber had the week before, and then challenged for a title rematch. Ciber wouldn’t totally commit but it appears to be happening.

Pompin counted Signo down for a Star three count in the third fall of the opener when it clearly wasn’t supposed to be the finish. Signo didn’t do a good job of kicking out, and he and Star Jr. kept going for a spot before Pompin ushered them out.

Thoughts:

Espanto trying.

The main event, and the entire show, didn’t feel like something following up a big Anniversary show. It felt like an ordinary midweek show effort for the most part, with the rudos not really showing anything after their big win last week. Fenix was the best guy in the match, and on the show, but didn’t have a lot to work with. Diamante Azul & Atlantis tried but are both limited. Don’t think it was Diamante Azul’s fault his big ramp clothesline looked bad, seemed like the rudos weren’t concerned about being in the right spot. No one much was concerned tonight.

The lightning match was going along fine, with Casas and Mistico matching up fine, and then they had an exceptionally dumb finish. Everyone involved looked dumb, especially the people who were spending their time to watch it. I’d like to see a match with a real finish with them. I’d like to be able to actually see without giant graphics in the way. It was fairly obvious someone was told they had to put time on the screen, and threw something together while giving zero thought to how it would look or where to put the information so that it wouldn’t block what was already on screen. This is the same promotion who streamed about five minutes without realizing they forgot to turn the audio on, so I expect we’ll still be seeing it for a while.

I was distracted live from the fourth match by trying to make sure the audio issue wasn’t on my end, and that it would work when CMLL got it to work. It was fine on the rewatch, with the Cl4N doing a few new things and the match generally helped by not going too long. It was just a means to a straight fall win for the técnicos, but the action was generally OK. The Cl4n struggled the most feeding for the Guerreros moves and they didn’t have to do that much.

bad times for the Cl4n

Rey Bucanero tried his best to keep up with the NGD in their trios match. Like Cl4n, his body just won’t always do what his mind wants, but the superplex to the floor spot was inspired. NGD looked strong in the end but have had better matches. The técnicos seemed off at times, with some mistimed exchanges. There wasn’t a lot of energy early on either.

The segunda was a smooth match, the way the Panthers and Fuego usually are, moving along at a good pace. They didn’t reinvent the wheel or do anything surprising, but it was a competently good CMLL match which got more entertaining as it went along. Kawato looked improved, though they still weren’t having him catch dives. Okumura seemed slower than usual and was in the wrong place for The Panther’s swing kick. I don’t know what Blue Jr. was trying to do to Kawato at the end.

Opener might have been good if they got to whatever their planned finish was going to be. Or maybe not. Rudos used their biggest moves possible in the first fall, knowing they weren’t going to get another pinfall, and gave us the weirdness of ending the first fall of the match with a super reverse rana and a Canadian Destroyer. Akuma tries and Espanto was better than usual up until he forgot to kick out. Star Jr.’s off the back legdrop spot takes a lot to set up but looked great. Magnus had a good night, though the crowd wasn’t into this at all.